The Heir
by Serpent Tailed Angel
Summary: When Alice gets involved Lucia ends up pregnant with Haru's child. Since this is NOT a fanfic where they're unrealisticly in love, this is a horible set up. Mpreg. Maybe tenderness later on, but also maybe not.
1. Chapter 1

This goes… ah… somewhere before star vestige, just because I don't feel like putting 'Neo' in front of his sword.

**Chapter 1**

"GLORY I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!!!"

Haru ducked as Decalogue was hurled at him "Hey! Hey! No lifting heavy objects, remember!?" He cried, throwing up his hands defensively and bolting down the hall or the Raregroove castle. Lucia perused.

Elie sighed, looking up from the board game she'd been attempting to play with Plue "He's at it again"

"Let him blow some steam off" Musica lit a cigarette and leaned back against the wall "I'd be pissed off to if I was in his place. And he'll only be worse if he can't get it all out now." There was a loud crash in the direction Lucia and Haru had disappeared too "Still… while he's still up to it, he should really be trying to murder Alice… if we find him. That old coot's smart to not show his face after what he did"

Alice was very smart not to show his face. After three months of personality clashing, as well as a lot of discomfort for Lucia, everyone was ready to strangle him.

It had started, at least as Alice claimed, with a dream in which King and Gale came to him from the afterlife with a very unusual favor. Realistically, it would have been better to bring Cattleya into the issue if this was true (the main reason that everyone suspected this was just a prank gone way too far, aside from not being able to describe what King looked like). Of course, that probably still would have upset Lucia a good deal, and maybe even given Haru a heart attack.

What Alice claimed the two Gales had come to him for was this. The Raregroove and Glory bloodline were always fighting, so, apparently, the solution they came up with was to mix the two. And Alice had taken it upon himself to make this happen. So, with two bottles of artificial lust and something black and gooey that the gang later found out was capable of defying many laws of nature, he had all but dragged Haru and Co to Lucia's castle. How he'd gotten the goo and lust potion down Lucia's throat was the second biggest mystery of the whole fiasco, but all he had to do to get Haru to drink was tell him the potion would help him become stronger.

Though you'd think that Haru would have known better than to believe him.

While the immediate results, Lucia being too sore to walk and Haru being too embarrassed to speak, had been interesting, things had gotten worse once the purpose of the black goo had been revealed. The reaction to this had been one of denial, then slow and painful acceptance of one very distressing fact: Lucia was pregnant, and Haru was the father.

Lucia, obviously, had denied this fact for a while longer than everyone else. Even after morning sickness had set in he insisted it was some variation of the flu until Megido pointed out he had no temperature.

Megido must have been the only one who understood what was going on since the beginning, since he had chased Alice off and forbidden Haru from leaving (why he'd let Alice enter in the first place was the biggest mystery). After much arguing, the rest of Haru's group was now protected by the same truce that allowed Haru to move around the castle without being harmed.

Of course, this truce existed with Haru and Megido, and Haru's friends and the remaining members of DC who were all afraid to upset the demon. Lucia still had no issue with harming Haru whenever he was in a bad mood.

There was another loud crash and lots of shouting. Finally, Haru came back out with what was likely some of that night's half cooked dinner in his hair looking more than a little hassled. "I don't get why he has to take it out on me"

"Cuzz you knocked him up" Musica said.

"Yeah, but I wasn't… I mean… Alice was…"

"Alice isn't here" Let reminded Haru "You are. And on the totem poll of blame you're the next highest"

Lucia came back. His hair was also coated in the half cook dinner, which, upon closer inspection, was probably lentil soup, rice, and mashed potatoes. Like Haru, he looked incredibly hassled, and also very pissed. He glared at the Rave Master and leaned against the wall.

This was when talking became awkward. For fear of sending the boy into another tantrum the group couldn't talk about anything related to him, but any new conversation they could start up would clearly just be an attempt to cover up that they'd been talking about him.

"So… uh… Musica…" Haru paused "How do you get mashed potatoes out of hair?"

"With water and shampoo, stupid" Musica laughed. Elie laughed too. Let didn't seem to find this as amusing.

"Well… I mean… without showering" Haru said, trying to drag out the conversation.

"Like this" Julia rammed him against the wall almost hard enough to crack it. Some of the soup and potatoes came out and left a mark on the wall, but the rice stayed.

Lucia grinned.

"Julia, that hur-" Haru was rammed again. This time some of the rice came out. Some of the soup dripped out of his hair after being shaken and fell on his face instead.

"AAAAGH!" Haru fell over on the ground and clutched his face, rolling around like a turtle that had been flipped on its shell (RC: turtles are actually really good at flipping themselves back over, but let's pretend they aren't) "There's soup in my eyes!"

Lucia chuckled this time. Seeing Julia act so violently was one of the few things the group had discovered could cheer him up. Unfortunately for Haru, all the other ways were just as painful, if not more.

After a minute of two more of this Lucia was called away by and advisor to work on who knows what. Once he was gone Belnika reached over and fixed Haru's nose.

"I wish he liked something other than seeing me suffer"

"It's natural" said Sieg "When you think about it, every major crisis that you experienced, he went through to a greater degree. He's unable to compare himself to regular people because of what he experienced, but he can come very close with you-another member of royalty who has similar experiences."

"What do you mean?"

"You're mother died at the same time as his-but he had to watch. You were both separated from your father-but while he was imprisoned, you had a sister to lovingly care for you. Your fathers died-but while you got to see your father one last time, his not only left him to rot in prison but also adopted a new son. While you've been surrounded by friends, Lucia has no one to trust, save the Sinclair-which I don't think he finds to be a very good confidential. To him, you are a similar yet much more fortunate person. You may be dirt poor" classic Sieg bluntness "while he lives in a lavish castle, but in his mind you are the one who is truly fortunate. For all his speech about not needing friends or family, I'm sure he's terribly lonely, maybe even the loneliest person in the world. He might even act distant to try to make himself not care" Sieg paused to look up from his book "Of course, that's all speculation based on typical human behavior and psychological affects of various traumas."

"Lucia is… lonely?" The idea had never occurred to Haru

"In theory" Sieg reminded him with the sort of speed that implied he personally doubted this "And regardless of whether he is or isn't, confronting him about it will most certainly result in death. Especially given his current temperament and the fact that under your treaty with Megido you are forbidden from laying a finger on him."

"Ah… but…"

"If Lucia really is suffering, then it's his own fault if he chooses not to seek someone out about it" Sieg said "That may sound harsh, but it's the truth. If he your wanted help that badly, he would have already made peace with you."

"Another theory?" Shuda asked.

"A fact" Sieg answered.

"Why would he go to Haru for help?" Musica asked.

"No one else is dumb enough to forgive a murderer. Look at me. I tried to kill Elie, but Haru hasn't raised the issue in over a year."

"Good point."

"I haven't raised the issue either, and I'm the victim" Elie said "Does that make me dumb"

"No. You're just sweet" Sieg told her gently "Haru's dumb though"

"What is this? Beat on Haru Day?" Haru asked "I already have to let Lucia use me as a punching bag, can't the rest up you ease up a little on me?"

"If you make it harder to make fun of you, we won't" Julia promised.

Haru grunted and picked a bit of rice out of his hair before storming off to his room.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster: **This might be easer not to continue.


	2. Chapter 2

Re-doing the placement of this on the timeline since Belnika's in this story. It's after the fight with Hardner, but before either Lucia or Haru can get the final piece of the Rave/Sinclair. It's a pain, because now I have to lengthen Lucia's summary of Haru's adventure.

**Chapter 2**

At four months Lucia was finally settling down… a little. The bump where one could previously see well toned muscles was a very painful reminder to him of what had happened, but at the same time he was getting a little bored with beating on Haru.

At this point that Sieg and Shuda concluded that Megido must **like** to see Lucia and Haru suffer, since it was then that he insisted that they share a room. In their minds, they had solved the biggest mystery of the fiasco and could move on to how Alice had gotten Lucia to take the potion(s).

"No thank you. I like having my head attached to my body" Haru had said.

Haru's response was lost, however, under the stream of curses with an occasional word in-between that could be boiled down to essentially "no" from Lucia.

Megido was not going to give up though. With a sadistic smile on his face he said "Now, now. You two are going to be parents. You should act like it more. To my knowledge neither or you snore or kick in your sleep. Any couple that doesn't have those problems share a bed"

"The last time I shared a bed with Haru he-"

"Lucia, I took your sword. You can't argue with me. Haru, I can eat Belnika before you can blink. You two will sleep in the same bed from now on."

Lucia and Haru exchanged hateful, yet somehow apologetic glances, before giving forced out sounds of conformation.

XXXXX

"I think I figured out why Megido allowed this to happen" Sieg announced while Haru was moving his things into Lucia's room.

"Let's hear it and pray it's not above our heads" Musica said sarcastically

"Save harming Haru, everyone does whatever they can to prevent Lucia from fighting. However, he's still always involved in planning for whatever their ultimate goal is. In the meantime, because of the truce we're unable to raise a finger against Demon Card. Sure, they can't harm **us** but the rest of the world is fair game. Megido planned all this out, including Haru's sense of responsibility toward the baby, and gave up a fair amount of Lucia's dignity to stall us."

"So in other words…"

"Megido let Lucia get impregnated so he could tie our hands. It worked, amazingly."

"That's stupid. What if it hadn't?" Julia said

"Lucia has no love for the child, and Megido only wants it because it stops us. If the plan hadn't worked they would have found a way to abort it" Sieg said "At least, that's what makes sense."

"And this just came to you?" Musica asked

"Originally I was thinking that it had something to do with the two family bloodlines, like Alice said. The baby could be used for either family to stake claim of the others throne. But that's ridiculous. Haru has no desire to revive the kingdom of Symphonia, and we're just about the only people who know an heir even exists. So I tried looking at it from the point of view of someone from Demon Card." Sieg said "That was the best reason I could come up with"

"And this just came to you?" Musica repeated

"The resistance lost a major fight recently. I was thinking about how we couldn't help because of the truce. That's how I got the idea" Sieg explained.

"What idea?" Haru asked, popping his head into the room.

"Don't bother with it" Sieg said "No amount of praying will keep it from being over your head"

"You really think Haru's an idiot, don't you?" Let asked

"I believe he's… naïve" Sieg said cautiously.

"I believe you shouldn't talk about me while I'm still here since Megido only took Lucia's sword" Haru said flatly.

"Speaking of which" Shuda pointed to the giant lava/lion/demon hovering over Haru.

"We're not done yet" Megido said before dragging the platinum haired boy away.

"Don't tell Haru" Sieg ordered "He's a little… rash" again, said cautiously "He may react in some way that could jeopardize his safety, or ours, or the worlds, or even the baby's."

"Got it"

XXXXX

"This. Sucks." Lucia flopped over on his bed "I can't believe I have to share a room with _you._"

"I can't believe you got this room all to yourself" Haru replied, looking around in awe "It's huge. My room on the ship could fit in your closet. Heck, it could fit on your bed."

:Speaking of which, I get this half of the bed." Lucia drew an invisible line across the middle from the left half "I'll be removing anything that crosses the middle"

"From that section of the bed?" Haru asked hopefully.

"From you" Which was what Haru had been afraid Lucia meant.

"Are you always this moody?"

"Well _sorry_ for being ticked that a giant demon let some freaky senior citizen drug me so that I'd end up _pregnant_ with the god dammed child of my least favorite person"

"You have to hate **someone** more than you hate me"

"Not anymore" Lucia didn't elaborate any further on this.

Haru, for lack of anything better to say, said nothing while he waited for Megido to bring some of his furniture into the room. To his surprise, it was Lucia that broke the silence "What do you make of all this?"

"The overdone room?"

"The situation we're in" Lucia corrected "What do you make of us being stuck together and what Alice said?"

"I wouldn't be too surprised if Alice really was trying to stop the blood feud. But I'd be less surprised if this was just a prank that went way too far" Haru said "You don't still have morning sickness, do you?"

"No" Lucia grabbed a pillow and rolled over so that his back was to Haru. That was the question he was asked the most. 'Are you feeling sick?' He was sick, sick of that question. Morning sickness had never been that bad for him anyway, so he didn't see why everyone made such a big deal of it "What about us being stuck together?"

"It's… probably a good experience. Getting to know one another better"

Lucia rolled back over to face Haru "You're name is Haru Glory, born July 7 0050 to Sakura and Gale Glory on Garage Island. Your father left when you were one and when you were six your mother left to find him. The next time you saw her was in a coffin. Your older sister Cattelya raised you until you were sixteen. While fishing one day you caught Plue, and later that day you ran into Shiba, who gave you the Rave stone after realizing you were the heir to Rave and being shot in the gut. You originally planned on staying on the island but after Shuda attacked it and you saw Plue's determination to leave you decided to go to the mainland and stop Demon Card. Once there you ended up in a dog track because Plue was abducted and sold there. You met Elie while trying to hide from a member of Demon Card who owned the track. She almost turned you over when you tried to stop the race, but later saved your life when Georco almost succeeded in killing you. At Punk Street you found someone to re-forge your ancient sword, but he actually refused to do it until Elie got kidnapped and you had to rescue her. At the same time you met Musica. After saving Elie from Lance you went to Ska village where you discovered Elie's fear of thunder and that she was searching for a blue haired man with a tattoo. You also learned the location of the next Rave stone. When you went to get it you two were almost assassinated, but were saved by Musica, who hadn't followed you out of Punk Street and met you by chance. After a short argument Elie got you two to get along and he's been traveling with you since. You got the Rave stone from a bear and then beat up Shuda, causing him to attempt suicide. You then went to a-"

"Stop"

"-Museum about the war to try and learn about Rave. This is when you met Sieg Hart and learned that Elie has etherion. Sieg told you where the next Rave stone was and when you went to get it you ended up meeting both our fathers and getting involved in a fight and race to stop the 'End of Earth' Dark Bring. You got to see my father commit suicide in an attempt to end the feud-" Lucia subconsciously put his hand over his stomach as he said this "-and your father died protecting you from a cave in. You waited for six months while Musica was in the hospital before going to Symphonia, at the same time you made friends with Let, who used to work for my father. On the way you picked Ruby up from a floating casino and made enemies with Doryu. You met me inside Symphonia after finding out where the final two Rave were. After I left you and your friends fought the remaining members of the Oracion Six and _lost_. Sieg came and saved you and told you some information he'd discovered about Rave and the key to Elie's memories before you and your friends left to get the next Rave and he stayed behind. You met a mermaid named Celia while trying to fish since you had given all your food supplies to a monster earlier that day. She took you to your village which had been destroyed by the Oni. While trying to rescue the other mermaids Elie was kidnapped and you had to board Doryu's ship to get her back. The scars you have now are from your fight with him. After rescuing the mermaids and Elie and defeating Doryu you were attacked by a bunch of dragons controlled by Jegan and ditched Let while you ran away. You ran into Shuda once you reached land and he directed you to your adoptive grandfather. You took some idiot we tricked with you to meet him. We fought there and I got Vampire from Shuda after you broke my sword. After that you entered Elie in a dance contest to try and fund your adventure. You risked your life to save an assassin who was mistaken for her, then through her you accidentally gave away the location of the résistance hideout."

"Lucia-"

"Because of that you hung around to fight of Blue Guardian. After the fight you tried to chase them down to re-obtain some staff of Elie's. While stopping in town you met Belnika, who healed your arm. You ended up boarding their ship after finding them and letting Elie get kidnapped. Then you stopped Belnika from killing herself, fell several thousand feet, and got locked up by natives. You broke out and beat up Hardner, then yelled at me for stabbing him. Then you left and got a lift to where the final Rave is supposed to be, but Alice dragged you here before you could get it so you could be a pain in the ass for me instead.

"Have you been stalking me"

"No. Now do you really think I need to get to know you better?" Lucia asked

"Seriously, that's creepy" Haru told him "Did the Sinclair tell you all that? Lucia?"

Lucia rolled back over and ignored Haru's presence. He had no desire to get to know the Rave Master better. He _had_ just drawn all that information from the Sinclair to shut Haru up. And he had no plans to let Haru know him better either.

"Lulu?"

"…What-" Lucia sat up "-did you just call me?!?"

"Lulu" Haru repeated "Does it bother you, Lulu?" Lucia glared "Come on, Lulu, did you learn all that from the Sinclair? What all does it know, Lulu?"

"Stop calling me Lulu!"

"Why, Lulu? Do you not like the nickname Lulu, Lulu?" Anyone watching the situation play out ought to have realized at this point that Haru was going out of his way to say Lulu whenever possible to annoy Lucia. Lucia recognized not only that Haru was doing this, but that it was working "Well, Lulu, if you don't want to talk to me, I'll go out and talk with my friends" Haru went over to the door, but paused there to say "See you tonight, Lulu." Before leaving.

"Tonight…" Lucia muttered "Enjoy your dreams, Rave Master. They'll be your last.


	3. Chapter 3

**S.J. Coppock** - Nice to know

**schyra **- Great. I actually wasn't sure from your last review if you liked this or not...

**Chapter 3**

Haru lay in bed, to scared to go to sleep. Lucia hadn't acknowledged him at all when he came in for the night. Shortly after Haru had gotten into pajamas the blond had stripped down to boxers and crawled under the sheets, not giving a sign that he'd so much as noticed Haru's presence.

Haru believed Lucia was just waiting for him to sleep before destroying him.

XXXXX

Haru sat up when the sun started to come through the glass panes on the door to Lucia's balcony. He hadn't gotten so much as a wink of sleep, but at least Lucia hadn't done anything to him.

He got out of bed and dressed. Lucia was fast asleep so he didn't bother to go into another room while he did so. Afterward, he went down the hall to the kitchen.

The nice thing about Lucia's room was that it was just down the hall from everything. Three doors down on the right side led to a back entrance to the throne room. Across the hall from that was the kitchen. There was even a pool if you went down a staircase you'd reach almost immediately if you went the other direction when you left his room. Lucia had had it set up this way so he wouldn't have to put much effort into learning his way to all the spots he'd use (though the pool was just a happy coincidence for Haru).

The kitchen was busy, as always. A lot of nobodies lived one some floor of the castle, and a lot of other nobodies had to feed them three times a day. Haru, as a somebody, could open the fridge whenever he wanted and take something out.

He ate a cinnamon roll as slowly as possible. Then he crammed four more into his mouth to keep him running until noon. He figured at that point no one would find it weird if he took a nap on the couch.

After this Haru returned to Lucia's room to grab a few of his things. Lucia had now wrapped himself up completely in the sheets he was no longer sharing. Haru left him there.

He knew Elie talked with him a lot, but he couldn't really remember what she said. All he could think about was how nice it would be to curl up like Lucia had and just sleep like the dead, and how much he was looking forward to doing that on the couch.

At some point while he was eating lunch the first thing of the day that he actually could recall when looking back on that day was said "Where's Lucia?" Haru was pretty sure Belnika had asked.

"I haven't seen him since he was in bed this morning"

"Go check" Belnika urged

"Why can't you?"

Belnika blushed "You have permission to go into his room."

"Yeah, but it's not his permission" Haru pointed out.

"Haru, check" Julia ordered "Lucia or not, no one with a baby on the way should be skipping meals"

"But…" Haru looked Julia in the eye "I'll go check"

Since Lucia's room was near anything he'd use Haru had no trouble at all reaching it. To his surprise, Lucia was still wrapped up in the sheets like some lucky bastard who could actually sleep.

"Hey, Lucia. Lucia? Lulu? Lucia!"

Lucia groaned and opened his eyes "……………Haru?"

"What are you doing in bed still? It's noon. Didn't you get enough sleep already?" No response "Aren't you hungry?" Lucia shook his head "You aren't hungry?"

"If I eat… I'll puke"

"You aren't feeling well?"

"Go away"

"Morning sickness?" Haru asked

"Go… away."

"Alright" and Haru left.

XXXXX

Even though Haru slept like a rock at noon he still spent the whole night in deep sleep. Even the fact that Lucia was lying right next to him and that he had no sheets didn't stop him.

He woke up around noon. Lucia was still in bed.

"Okay, Lucia. If you starve yourself to death I'll be blamed for it somehow. Get up"

"Mm-mm"

"Lulu, up"

'Lulu' threw a pillow at Haru. He had good aim for someone who wasn't even looking at his target.

"That's it" Haru grabbed the sheets and yanked. Lucia yelped when the sheets were ripped out from under him, causing him to flip over. Normally, such an offense would cause Haru to be kicked hard in a way girls didn't have to worry about, maybe even hard enough that Glory would never be able to knock anyone else up. On this rare instance, however, Lucia just looked at Haru like the Rave Master had eaten his puppy alive.

"Okay. What's wrong."

"…don't feel good" Lucia mumbled.

Haru was a little hesitant to act on this, but he'd already crossed all the way onto Lucia's half of the massive bed and hadn't been ripped to shreds so he was probably safe. Slowly, carefully, he put his hand on Lucia's forehead.

He was burning up.

"You need a doctor" Lucia looked at Haru like he'd just tossed his kitten in the microwave. "I'm serious. You can't be this sick with a baby. I don't know what sorts of medicines are safe to take while pregnant" Lucia continued to give Haru that look "You have a really bad fever. You need treatment and… I'll get Belnika."

"Sheets" Lucia said when Haru got up.

"What?"

"Sheets" Lucia pointed to the sheets Haru had ripped away from him. Haru tossed them back over to Lucia, who wrapped himself back up as Haru left.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Where did he get the cold form? Who cares! Any who, I realized it didn't fit to have Bel in the story if it happened before Star Vestige, so I re-writ Lucia's summary or the story (which was a pain) to go up to beating Hardner. She doesn't show up now, but if this story actually follows my vague plan (which no fanfic has ever done before) then she's actually gonna become an important character, so I need her to fit.

Now admit it, doesn't it sound cute to see Lucia all wrapped up in his bed sheets with a fever? I don't know why, but I really like it when those 'mightier-than-thou-art' villains get sick or injured or suffer in some way… like having to deal with pregnancy. My Zelda mpreg has Vaati dealing with it (Dark was a last minute decision so I could make a sequel), and if you find my old account it's always Yami-Bakura who got knocked up in my Yu-Gi-Oh fanfics.

By the way, if you can find either of the two old accounts I abandon I'll tell you any plans for the plot I found. You only get one guess though. They both contain **only** Yugioh fanfics. One's only mpreg, one's only… not. The not one is the one I told my family about, the mpreg one I made so I could write mpreg without them knowing. This one I made when I got tired of balancing those two.


	4. Chapter 4

srry. No time to respond to reviews.

**Chapter 4**

"He should be fine" Belnika removed her hand from Lucia's forehead. "The disease isn't fatal, he'll just need to wait it out. I put up a spell to make sure it doesn't harm the baby so there's nothing to worry about."

"Will he be speaking in full sentences now?"

"Mm-mm" Lucia mumbled. His face had been buried in his pillow the second Belnika's hand left.

"He's just not feeling well. You'll know he's getting better once he starts doing that" She put a hand on Lucia's shoulder. Then they all just sat there for a good half a minute waiting for something to happen.

"W-well" Belnika got up, looking at Haru with bright red cheeks "I should go. Make sure he stays hydrated and that he eats-even if he doesn't think it'll stay down. Keep a bucket nearby just in case and don't move him unless you have to. He's already got pregnancy to deal with, it's best if he's as comfortable as possible during this ordeal."

"Alright"

"Should I tell anyone about this?"

"It would be a good idea. He-"

"No………" Lucia said. It was said softly and hazily, like he was just barely aware of what was going on around him. None the less, his saying it made it final.

Haru sat by Lucia for a half an hour after Belnika left. Lucia curled up and fell asleep at some point during this. He rolled around restlessly. The sheets came loose and knotted as he shifted again and again, eventually revealing his stomach.

A small smile found its way onto Haru's face. Unable to resist, he placed his hand on Lucia's belly. What Lucia would do to him should he know his stomach had been touched (an incredibly high offense, as of late) did pass through Haru's mind, but he was much more focused on the idea that a baby-his baby-was in there.

Now if only it was in Elie instead. It was a bit of a disappointment that his first kid was being carried by, of all people, Lucia, but he was still excited for it. Besides, Elie knew the whole story so worst case scenario was that she'd tease him about it when-if-they married and had their own children.

Lucia whimpered. Haru moved his hand away quickly as the blond's eyes fluttered open "…Haru?"

"Yeah"

"I'm hungry…" Lucia said softly. This didn't come as a surprise to Haru. Lucia hadn't gotten out of bed in a day and a half and no servant dared enter. Anyone would be famished after going so long without food.

"Alright. I'll go to the kitchen and get you something" Haru promised, standing up. What would be good for a pregnant boy with a high fever? Something really easy on the stomach for sure. Maybe even with as little a scent as possible "How about rice porridge?"

"Mm-mm" Lucia shook his head just the slightest bit "Porridge is yucky"

Haru had to stand there for a second to process the fact that he'd heard Lucia use the word 'yucky' before deciding Lucia was probably too out of it to even know what he was eating and went to get porridge anyway.

Lucia made a displeased face when porridge was spooned into his mouth, though whether this was because he was he didn't like it or because he was being spoon fed was impossible to tell. He ate it though, which was what Haru was concerned with. He tried to talk from a few times, but Haru made sure that food went into Lucia's mouth whenever it opened so no words made it out.

Once the bowl was half empty Haru set it aside, not wanting to push his luck with Lucia's stomach, which had fairly good odds of sending things back up without a fever to aid it in the past few months.

After a few minutes of them both sitting in silence, Lucia went back to sleep. Haru sighed, realizing he was in for some boring days and wondering why he couldn't just take Lucia to a doctor and let someone else deal with him.

XXXXX

"I haven't seen Haru for a few days" Shuda said to no one in particular.

"Yeah. He's been in Lucia's room almost nonstop. He only comes out to get food." Sieg said, scribbling down various equations as he spoke.

"What about the bathroom?" Musica had to ask.

"Lucia probably has a private one" Shuda passed it off. "Is something wrong with Haru?"

"I'd be more concerned with Lucia. He hasn't come out at all for even longer. The only reason I have to think he's still alive is that Haru doesn't believe in murder." Sieg set whatever he was working on down and looked up at the other two "It's not that bad, actually. We don't have to worry about him popping in at the wrong time."

"Do you like him at all?"

"I do. It's just that I don't trust him and his impulsiveness and naivety on such a sensitive issue." Sieg said "The resistance is loosing. And there's nothing we can do about it. There has to be **some** way we can get out of this truce."

"And leave Haru here alone?"

"Ideally." Sieg admitted "Demon Card sees Haru as the biggest threat to their cause-whatever it is. So long as they still have him under the truce they'll feel safe enough. If only one or two of us were to break it somehow we could help the resistance."

"Then whoever stays behind could become a hostage" Shuda pointed out.

"That's the problem. The contract Haru made with Megido is too basic. And it was completely verbal too so there's nothing to go by but their word. If I just follow what one of them said the other may think I've made some sort of breech to the contract."

"Soooo…?"

"So I may need to break a few of Mildea's rules" Sieg said, scowling deeply "Haru and Megido made that truce while they were alone. If I can create a controlled rip in time I can sneak in there under a cloaking spell and find out exactly what the limitations are-and maybe record it for evidence just in case."

"Do you know how to?" Shuda asked

"Mildea doesn't haves a cell in their prison specially designed for me for no reason"

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: I imagine that Sieg was actually this huge trouble maker back when he was like, a teen. I think he was 28 when he died.

Lucia'll be all better by the next chapter. The main purpose of this one was to get him to say the word "yucky". No joke. I'm gonna try to keep them all in character, and the cold and the labor are the only opportunities I can think of where I can make Lucia act otherwise, So I had to slip yucky in.


	5. Chapter 5

**Puppylove7**-It gained other reasons as I went through, but the main reason I kept him sick for multiple chapters was to do that.

**S.J. Coppock**-Well, they seemed awfully prepared for him when he first came back tracking Haja

**Chapter 5**

Lucia sat up and looked around. He didn't have any particularly strong memories of Haru being in bed with him, but he recalled that being Megido's order (for some reason). What stood out more to him was a clock telling him it was mid-afternoon.

Since he had no intention of walking around all day in boxers he got up and got dressed. Usually he slept in nothing, but he never **ever** wanted to wake up naked in the same bed as Haru ever again. The last time was why his stomach was bumping out.

Once he dressed he decided that since he had to share his room and bed with Haru he had the right to be hypocritical. He yanked Haru off the bed and let the boy land on the floor with a thud. When Haru sat up and looked around confused Lucia said "I don't know how you can sleep in so late."

"Oh" Haru sounded disappointed "You're better"

"How can you get so little sleep during the night that you need to waist most of your day in bed?" Lucia pointed to the clock as he spoke. His other hand rested on his hip.

"I missed sleeping because I had to stay up all night making sure your fever stayed down" Haru snapped.

"Fever?"

"You've been sick for over a week" Haru told him "You seriously don't remember?"

Lucia thought about it. He had blurry memories of not feeling well, and Haru and the blue haired girl speaking, and eating something nasty. He just shrugged.

"I've been stuck in here making sure you're temperature didn't rise to high and that you getting enough food and water without throwing it all up. I had to spoon feed you porridge for eight days!"

Lucia made a disgusted face "You fed me **porridge**?"

"Yeah. You told me it was 'yucky', but I didn't know what else I could get you that would be easy on your stomach." Haru said "Stop making that face. You're supposed to say 'thank you' when someone nurses you back to health"

"Nah" Lucia turned and left.

"NEXT TIME YOU'RE BURNING UP I'M GONNA SET YOU ON FIRE!" Haru yelled after him.

XXXXX

"Haven't seen you in a while" Musica said when Lucia flopped down on a couch. There was a small lounge area behind the throne room. This was where Haru's gang usually hung out, and where Lucia came when he didn't feel like being in his room or like being active. There was a servant spackling the wall where Julia had slammed Haru's face into it about a month ago.

"A week, I've been told" Lucia said.

"Thought you were dead" Musica continued

"You thought wrong"

"It's kind of disappointing"

Lucia stared at him for a second, then waved over a servant and said "Get him out of here" pointing at Musica. The servant shrugged apologetically and dragged Musica out of the room.

"You couldn't do that yourself?" Sieg asked

"To tired" Lucia responded. Getting up to drag Musica out himself sounded like to much work.

Then it happened again. That thing where it became to awkward to talk around Lucia because you didn't want to upset him, but they couldn't all just leave or it'd probably be just as bad. So they all just sat there in silence until someone came in and announced dinner was ready. Everyone was glad to leave. At the dinner table new conversation would be available. Only Lucia lingered, wanting to enjoy the alone time for a moment.

Or that's what he'd hoped for.

Once everyone else was gone Belnika got up and asked "Are you feeling better now?"

"Hm?"

"Your fever" She said "Are you feeling better now? Your fever's gone?"

"I… guess." Musica had made him think that no one else knew.

Noticing Lucia's confusion, Belnika said "Healing magic is my specialty, so Haru ran and got me when he realized you were sick. You told us not to go around telling people" She smiled "I'm glad you recovered"

"Is that all?" Lucia asked.

Belnika frown and bent over, feeling Lucia's forehead. Lucia felt himself blush. He blamed it on hormones. "You're still a little warm. Don't do too much today."

"Yes master" Lucia said dryly, swatting Belnika's hand away and getting up to go eat.

"G-good luck" Belnika stuttered.

Lucia looked at her like she was crazy "With what?"

"With… um… with…" she was thinking about **completely** recovering, but that sounded stupid now. She just frown instead and hurried past him. There was no point to trying to be nice to Lucia.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: My goal is to make this fanfic about half the length of Lost Magic at most.


	6. Chapter 6

**Puppylove7**-I don't know. When I have a bad fever I don't really focus on reality enough to be able to tell someone what happened once I recover.

**S.J. Coppock**-You must have really liked the yucky comment then...

**Chapter 6**

Haru watched in half awake amusement as Lucia examined himself in a large mirror that was always covered by a spare sheet unless in use. Haru had once asked the oddly named woman in charge of information why this was, and her best guess was that Lucia was superstitious.

Today though, whatever it was about mirrors that bothered him was set aside by his worries about his form. After inspecting himself for a good long time, then turned to Haru and honest to god asked "It's not to big, is it? My stomach?"

Had Haru been born just the slightest bit meaner he would have milked the situation for all it was worth, mocking Lucia then and bringing the moment up for years to come. Haru was just nice enough that he managed to restrain all but a huge grin when he said "It's fine."

"No it's not. You're trying not to laugh"

"You're asking me if I think you're fat" Haru had to point out. "**You**"

Lucia sighed and looked down at the bump, carefully poking it with his middle finger as if afraid it would pop, but needing to see if it would. "It's huge. This is stupid. Why couldn't Alice have given **you** that stupid pregnancy goop? You're the one who actually **cares** about the kid."

"You'd still attack me if I were pregnant" Haru pointed out.

"And?"

"You're six months pregnant. According to both Sieg and Julia you're stomach is **smaller** than most people's would be. You just have a little longer to go. Can you handle that?"

"No" Lucia poked his stomach again "It feels weird. The… the kids _squirming_. Is it going to stop at some point? It's hard to sleep when the thing moves around so much."

"The baby's moving?" Haru's eyes lit up. He'd been wondering about that for a fair amount of time. He was certain Sieg had described it as happening earlier when they'd first been dragged to the castle and he'd asked about pregnancy, but it was beyond possible that Lucia had simply gone out of his way not to mention it.

"The baby wont stop moving" Lucia complained "Doesn't it need sleep?"

"Can I feel?" Haru pleaded.

"No. I swear, Haru, if you touch my stomach I'll **kill** you" Which made Haru grateful that not only had Lucia been asleep during that first day of fever when Haru felt his belly, but that he'd been to out of it to remember the couple later times when Haru hadn't even bothered for him to become unconscious before feeling.

"Please"

"No"

"Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?"

Lucia picked up a pillow and covered his ears with it as Haru continued to beg.

This had become standard daily procedure. Both boys would wake up some time between six and seven and bicker like they were five year olds who had no idea what the gravity of a death threat was-especially when you possessed a sword the size of you and were capable of (In Haru's case, not in Lucia's at the moment) swinging it around with ridiculous ease. After they both managed to very slowly get dressed they would go down to the kitchen and eat on opposite sides of the room before going about their business for the day, as neither bothered to brush hair or teeth or anything else one would do while prepping in the morning. If Lucia faced any pregnancy related discomfort or embarrassment he would leave as soon as was convenient and track Haru down to make sure he became just as uncomfortable of humiliated. Haru learned that the pool was actually the safest place. Having been locked up throughout childhood Lucia had never learned to swim, and was too embarrassed about this to ask for lessons.

Then Haru reached out and tried to feel Lucia's stomach anyway. Lucia dropped the pillow and shoved him back "Is there some part of touch and you die that you don't get?"

"But I'm the father!" Haru argued, trying to reach Lucia's stomach anyway. It didn't work.

"Thanks for reminding me." Lucia sneered. Haru yelped in pain as the blond bent his arm backward. Lucia had abandon the idea of **really** killing him after being convinced that Haru had, in fact, taken care of him while he was feverish, but he still had no problems with harming him in all sorts of ways.

With the angle he was holding Haru's one arm at, Haru could now reach with his free one and feel Lucia's protruding stomach. He smiled as he felt a light motion beneath the skin. Then he looked up at Lucia, who looked horrified, embarrassed, and furious with this development. Then he flashed a sheepish grin and bolted for the pool.

Lucia was right on his heels the whole time.

XXXXX

"What happened to you?"

"I felt Lucia's stomach…"

Musica whistled, impressed by this bold action "You still have both your hands. Not bad."

"But a bit of my arm is missing. Where's Bel? I thought she could heal it"

"She's in the throne room" where Lucia spent most of his time, in other words, somewhere Haru couldn't go "She said she wanted to get a better idea for how Demon Card worked."

"I thought in big governments or organizations most stuff happened in meetings behind doors and all the public stuff was for show." Haru said

"Lucia runs Demon Card, and he's opinionated and impulsive enough that there's no point to that sort of a system" Sieg said.

"Why Belnika she care?" Haru felt the need to ask.

"Beats me"

XXXXX

Belnika didn't look away from Lucia. He had his hand resting on his stomach. She'd probed at it with her magic a few minutes ago and detected cramps. He didn't keep it there when he knew people were looking, but the second he thought no one noticed he would rub it, clearly bothered. Out of courtesy, or maybe fear, no one mentioned it.

"Lucia, the resistance took out a whole division this past week" Some nameless advisor told him "If you could convince one of the demon lords to go and handle them it would-"

"No"

"But Lucia-"

"I'm not dispatching a demon lord any time soon. Go convince them yourself if you think it's such a necessity." Lucia said irritably. He had little desire to use the remaining demon lords on something as mundane as regular humans "If our soldiers can't handle the resistance why do we even have them?"

"Because…" the advisor trailed off

"Because they're a waste of food space and money?" Lucia guessed "If they can't do their job then they shouldn't be working here." Turning to his only remaining general he said "Berial, **you** go handle them. I don't care who you bring along, so long as you take **him-**" he pointed to the advisor "-with you"

"Yes, my lord" Berial muttered before giving the advisor a toothy grin. The advisor shuddered.

There was a lull after Berial dragged the man out of the room where, with the exception of a few servants, no one significant was there. Lucia sighed and rested his head back, shutting his eyes. He was finding this sort of work to me more be more and more mind numbing each day. It had never been particularly exciting to just sit back and give orders, but he figured that being forbidden from being in battle himself, and therefore having no exciting moments to compare to, would make such dull activities less… dull.

When he opened them he actually noticed Belnika. He didn't know how he'd missed her, her hair was one of the more noticeable dos in the castle. "When did you get here?"

"Th-this morning. When you did" she said "Are… are you alright? You looked like your stomach was bothering you."

"Hmph" He looked away.

"If it is… I can help…" she offered.

"Fine. Go ahead" which was as close to 'please' as he dared go.

Belnika got up and went over to him. Her cheeks turned slightly pink as she put a hand on Lucia's stomach. She looked up to make sure this was alright before casting a spell to ease the muscles that had cramped up. Her cheeks turned red when Lucia sighed in relief and smiled for a split second.

She straightened up instantly and hurried back to her spot at the side of the room as someone else stepped in.

"Shakuma, you're back?" Lucia sounded both bored and disappointed with this development "That was… fast."

"I haven't finished. I sensed some sort of magic disturbance here in the castle last night. I came to investigate it."

"You said the same thing half a year ago. Get back to work." Lucia told him irritably.

Shakuma looked displeased by this, but bowed and said "As you wish" before warping away.

"Okay. That's my limit" Lucia got up and glared at two servants who still remained in the room, dusting and whatnot. They noticed and hurried out. Once the two of them were alone Lucia gave Belnika a shy smile and said "Thanks" very softly before getting the hell out of there as well.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster: **I went through all my fanfics and decided this is my favorite thing I've written so far:

_Disturbed by her concern, Erza treated Jeral especially coldly to convince herself that she was not going to let her feeling for him from when she was a child resurface. Often going way out of her way to torment him, but sticking around to make sure nothing bad happened. To Jeral, who was no expert in the working of either the female mind or Erza's, it seemed that Erza was just trying to make him miserable. _

_Finally, after another week or so, Shimon's existence was remembered (by the author) and brought in for help (to somehow maintain the plot)._

So here's my current theory. All the Jeral/Gerards are actually part of Zeref. Mystogan has been running around since some other seal was released, and Gerard is some part that didn't get sealed and thinks he's a normal human and each time he dies he's reborn somewhere else because he's part of Zeref. Each time another seal is released another one of 'em is gonna start running around.

Sure, it's crappy. But that skeleton guarding Resha's grave was Sieg, wasn't it. My theory is just as plausible as that was.


	7. notice

No. I'm not discontinuing this, I just remembered something.

Since chapter 3 or so I've really been set on how/where Lucia will have the kid (After doing a couple labor scenes in Yugioh I kind of burnt out on it, so I usually skip it whenever I can). It's gonna be **fun**.

Anyway, the baby will be a boy. Duh. It has to since girls seem to be immune to the blood/fate thing, and I just like mpreg boy babies better since every mpreg I ever read had a girl instead. It's appearance will change based on **your **choice.

_Do you want LUcia or Haru to get the kid_? No, they are **not** going to become friends. The are splitting up as soon as this is done. I've come up with two differenct endings depending on who actaully gets to raise the boy. The idea is that I like both enough that I can go with whatever is voted on (but I might lean toward Lucia getting him). If you want to have a say in it, you have to review on this page, cuzz I don't want to search the whole (dinky) review list for everyone's opinion.


	8. Chapter 7

**schyra **- Well, he'd take the kid with him to the next world. Can't you see it though? I mean, Lucia does miss having a family. I can see him really wanting the kid and actually taking care of him (or one of those awkward "how do I change a diaper" moments, at least).  
Well, if that's waht you think.

**S.J. Coppock **- OMG, you said "tummy problems"! I need to make someone in the fanfic call it that! Thanks for agreeing on the Gerard thing, btw. It's nice to get positive feedback.

**Chapter 7**

"Did you get it?"

Sieg clicked a button on an old looking tape recorder.

"I'm proposing a very simple truce" Megido's voice came from the machine "You want to be with the baby, don't you?"

"Of course" That was Haru's voice

"I can stop Lucia from fighting until the child is born-though it won't be an easy task. You and your… friends… can stay here. While we're all here there will be no fighting. I'll make sure the other demon lords agree to this, and I can guarantee no human who happens to be around here will fail to comply. Lucia might not obey, but he'll only be able to do so much harm while pregnant, and we'll rescue you our your friends if we happen to be nearby and believe he's going to kill you."

"Is Lucia going to be stuck in the castle the whole time?"

"Naturally"

"Alright"

Sieg turned the tape recorder off "It was an even simpler agreement than I thought. There's nothing even requiring us to stay-or saying we can't fight outside of the castle"

"Then a few of us should leave" Shuda said "Someone who won't be too noticed… so not you"

Sieg sat down next to the red-head "If you think so. It would probably be safe to send Julia. Everyone knows Let as 'the guy who beat Jegan'. They may notice him leave."

"Well I'm the guy who used to work here and beat Deep Snow, and I don't get that sort of attention"

"Then you can go too" Sieg sighed. There'd actually be a lot less intelligent conversation to be had with Shuda gone. Not wanting to dwell on this thought he let his mind wander, then said "Do you ever wonder if there's something really important we're missing?"

"Like the fifth Rave?"

"Yeah, something like that…"

XXXXX

Alpine climbed out of the cave he'd hidden in for a moment to look around, then returned to his living space. Turning to Shiba he said "They are coming, aren't they?"

XXXXX

"Owww…" Lucia put a hand on his stomach "That was _mean_"

"What are you talking about?" Haru asked, glancing over at the blond. As Megido's latest torture method the two were required to spend an hour together after lunch-which they had to eat together too. They were sitting on opposite ends of a couch waiting for their hour to end.

"It kicked me…" Lucia frown at his stomach, as if mentally scolding the child in there.

"I thought it kicks you all the time."

"It kicked me in the bladder…"

The maximum distance he were permitted to put between each other was not great enough for one or the other to use the bathroom alone. It was usually the first thing Lucia did when time ran out.

Haru looked around "Megido isn't here. If you really need to go you could run to the bathroom real fast."

"Ah… no… there's only about ten more minutes… I can wait." Lucia insisted, making Haru wonder what black-mail had been used to force Lucia into this new socializing period.

"Really, Lucia, if you need-"

"I'm **fine**" Lucia snapped. He was blushing. Haru dropped the subject.

Silence fell down on them.

"Belnika…" Lucia said after a few minutes "That's her name, right? The blue haired girl who does healing magic?"

"Yeah, but I can understand you not knowing. She's only been living here for half a year."

"What does she… I mean…" Lucia frown, trying to come up with a subtle way to ask. Like Sieg, he thought of Haru as a fairly dense person, but he didn't want to leave anything up to chance.

"Are you curious about her?"

"I suppose. She helped out when I was sick, didn't she?" Which was part of the curiosity it was a cover for.

"Yeah. She made sure the fever wasn't anything awful, and that the baby would be alright, and let me know what all I'd need to do to make sure you recovered." Haru said

"So what do you know about her?" Lucia pushed

"Well, I guess her parents died when she was little…" Haru said, straining his brain to think about what all she'd told him "She volunteered to be a test subject to develop Etherion, but she got some other sort of magic instead, which is what she uses for healing. She joined up with us while we were fighting Hardner-she was originally going to help him because she thought he was trying to stop Endless."

"Mm…" Lucia looked away, thinking about this. There wasn't much in the way of she likes this or that, but it was some info. "Wee you-ack!" He looked back down at his stomach "Damn it! Can't the kid kick something else?"

"I think our time is up" Haru said "If you need to, you can go to the-" Lucia hurried past him "Have fun" Haru called after him to make things awkward. That was his knew thing. He wasn't allowed to harm Lucia, so h just tried to make him uncomfortable. One such way he'd discovered (from Elie doing it to him) was telling the blond 'have fun' whenever he went into the bathroom.

Lucia paused for a moment to flip Haru off before exiting the room.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Check it out! Two posts in one day! I don't think I've done that since I first started writing crap on this site (seriously, the first stuff I wrote was crap)

The point in time that I stuck this story kind of screws Shiba over-cuzz Haru can't go and get the Rave from him. Just thought I'd point that out.


	9. Chapter 8

**schyra** - 2 things. 1) Belnika's hair is blue-ish/grey/purple if you ask me, blue is just the easiest to type. 2) I'm gonna make that dialog exchange into a comic.

**S.J. Coppock **- Aw. Thanks. It means a lot to me that you like it.

**Chapter 8**

Lucia was in the middle of eating dinner when it happened. Everyone was there. Haru and all his friends, and several of the more important members of Demon Card as well. A messenger ran in and stood just past the doorway then said "Master Lucia, General Deep Snow is requesting permission to enter."

For a second, Lucia felt sick. It wasn't the baby. It was _him_. Deep Snow was back. He couldn't stand that man. It had only been after much urging from both Haja and the Sinclair that he'd only grudgingly agreed to call Deep Snow back into Demon Card and appoint him as Shuda's replacement.

"Well… Sir?"

"What does he want?"

"To speak with Shuda, sir. It seems he only came here looking for Haru's group"

"……………………bring him in" Lucia muttered. He stared at his lap when he spoke. He didn't want to look at his step-brother.

Shuda felt a voice in his head say //lucky for him he made it today. You leave tomorrow//. He looked to Sieg for an explanation //Calm down. I'm projecting my thoughts to you so no one else can hear. What would he want from you? Revenge?//

Shuda shook his head just the slightest bit. Sieg shrugged and returned to picking at his food. Unlike Lucia, who had devoured meals **before **he was really pregnant, everyone had yet to see Sieg eat anything. Elie had made it into a game to try and catch him putting food in his mouth.

After a few minutes of awkward silence Deep Snow entered "Master Lucia"

"I thought you were dead" Lucia glanced up at him "I'd be lying if I said I weren't a little disappointed. You know what we do with generals who fail, don't you?"

"You wouldn't really kill your brother, would you?" Deep Snow asked half jokingly. The words were like a dagger being twisted around in Lucia's gut. The baby shifted, assuring him that it was the only thing in there.

Lucia looked away "Fine. You want to speak with Shuda right. Both of you get the hell out of here"

Shuda got up and left. Deep Snow followed him. Lucia stared at his meal for a moment before getting up and leaving through a different door.

XXXXX

"What did he want to talk to you about?" Haru asked.

"King" Shuda said "King adopted Deep Snow shortly after the incident where he lost his wife and Lucia was arrested. He sent Deep Snow away to the Empire telling him to act as a spy in an attempt to keep him from being too involved in Demon Card. I overheard a handful of things about their relationship during my time in the Oracion Six. Deep Snow wanted to hear about them. That's all"

"Wait. So he and Lucia are… brothers?" Haru asked.

"He said it during dinner" Musica pointed out "Deep Snow said Lucia wouldn't have his own brother put to death"

"I don't think Lucia sees Deep Snow as a relative." Sieg said "He looked less than pleased by his survival."

"Haru, aren't you supposed to sleep with Lucia?" Let asked as Haru unfurled a sleeping bag.

"Yeah, but his door's locked." Haru said "So I'm in here tonight."

"I can open it" Musica offered, to Haru's disappointment.

"Oh… alright…" Haru rolled the sleeping bag back up "You need help getting to his room?"

"I know the way. Come on" Musica and Haru left and went down a series of hallways to reach Lucia's room. Lucia's room was conveniently next to everything. The guest rooms weren't.

Musica pulled out his silver and inspected the lock before shaping the appropriate key to open the door. Haru slipped in and shut the door behind him once Musica got it open.

"Hey, Lucia, are you in here?"

"What?" Lucia was curled up in bed, no boxers this time.

"Um… are you alright?"

"Fuck off"

Haru sat down on the bed "If you want to talk to somebody… I can"

"Fuck off" Lucia repeated "I don't know how you got in, but the door was locked for a reason."

"Is this about Deep Snow?"

"Haru…" Lucia sat up. He was completely naked. Haru tried his hardest not to look "Get the hell out of my room before I toss you off the balcony"

Haru obeyed.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Did you notice the whole July 7th thing? It's not just Haru and Lucia's birthday. It's when Lucy's mom died and all the dragons disappeared. If the second two weren't another Rave Master reference then Hiro Mashima just really likes that date.

btw, thanks to schyra, if Haru keeps the baby his name is no longer gonna be Levin, he's gonna be Takeshi.


	10. Chapter 9

**S.J. Coppock **- I wonder if Deep Snow and Lucia were even aware of their relation... haha. But if I were Lucia and I knew that would make me mad enough to through someone over a balcony

**schyra** - Your name is hard to spell. Anyway, King never rescued Lucia cuzz he thought he was dead.

**Puppylove7** - I guess I don't have any reply then...

**Chapter 9**

"Hey, Sieg" Haru poked at the sorcerer.

Irritated, Sieg shut his book at looked up at the Rave Master "What, Haru?"

"I thought you said if Lucia was lonely and wanted help he'd go to me?"

Sieg thought back a ways and remembered saying something along those lines "And?"

"You lied"

"Haru, the only thing I actually said was a fact was that he'd have gone to you already if he wanted to"

There was a moment of silence, then "oh"

"What brought this about anyway?" Sieg asked as he opened his book back up and searched for his page.

"That" Haru pointed to a couch where Lucia and Belnika sat together talking about something to quietly to be audible from where Haru and Sieg were.

Sieg watched the two of them silently for a moment before shrugging "Well, that's good for him"

"That's **it**?" Haru almost sounded disgusted "Lucia is getting friendly with someone and that's the most interest you show in it?" Sieg didn't bother to respond. Truly disgusted, Haru moved a little closer to try and overhear what they were talking about.

"S-stop it. It feels weird." Lucia had a faint blush that Haru hadn't noticed from the other side of the room.

"Come on, Lucia. It's completely normal for people to feel your stomach when you're pregnant. It's not like you're fat" which she said in an honest voice with a straight face "You're just having a baby. Please, can I feel it kick? I can't have a kid of my own after all the experiments I went through, so it's the closest I could come."

A mild look of pity flashed across Lucia's features, but he covered it quickly "F-fine. I-if you really want to that m-much." He looked over at the wall.

Belnika reached forward and set her hand on Lucia's round stomach "She's not moving…" Belnika had decided the baby was a girl.

"It's… a little higher up"

"Oh!" Haru had never seen Belnika look more excited than she did right then "I felt it move! Lucia, I felt the baby move! Oh… you're so lucky!"

Lucia laughed and looked back at her. He smiled. Unlike the other rare occasions were he had a genuine smile on his face, this one stayed there.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Guess which paring I decided to go with for this fanfic? It's just to sad when the preggy guy ends up alone, after all.

Btw, there's currently a Lucia vote, a Haru vote, and a whichever vote for who keeps the kid. If you haven't voted yet, please go to _chapter 7: notice_ and do so.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Oof" Lucia put one hand on his back as he got up. The other gripped his bed post, helping him not to fall over.

"The baby can't weigh more than your sword" Haru told him.

"It's not… heavier. But it's awkward. The kid makes it a lot harder to move." Just over 32 weeks pregnant Lucia's stomach was now at what was considered to be an average size for someone as far along as he was. In addition to the new discomforts that came with this Haru was harmed a lot less, since Lucia had to much difficulty hurting him over every petty dispute at this point, and the baby had been promoted from 'it' to 'the kid'.

Haru buried his face in his pillow to stifle his laughter. Lucia looked less than pleased.

"Sorry. Sorry. It's just… I mean… Really, I'm sorry you have to go through all this discomfort. It's just… funny." Haru said "Come **on**, Lucia. I've seen you swing a sword as big as you are around like it's nothing. That kid can't weigh more than five pounds."

"Maybe not, but it's sticking out of my stomach" Lucia argued "It throws off my balance."

Interactions with Lucia had become much more open and non-violent as of late. Not just because he was too pregnant to be very active anymore. Talking with Bel seemed to cause him to become mellower. No one was complaining about this change in him, not even the demon lords.

"Well, if you say so." Haru got up and started searching for a clean pair of clothes.

When he looked over Lucia was examining himself in the mirror again, still incredibly displeased with his figure. "It should go back to normal soon enough after the baby is born."

"Whenever that is." Lucia said glumly.

Haru just sighed and shook his head. Now that Lucia had given up on causing him pain the blond's main focus was his ever expanding stomach. Haru, as a fighter, realized how hard it must be for Lucia to watch this happen, know he was useless in battle (just about the only way he'd ever managed to apply himself), and know that his whole organization backed up this torture. Alice could have just as easily given him the goop that made pregnancy possible and he'd have been in the same situation, only with Lucia still trying to destroy him. Still, he was getting a little tired of trying to assure Lucia that it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Elie reasoned that Haru had no success in convincing Lucia of this because he didn't believe it himself.

"Hey, Lucia, how did it happen?"

"Well Haru, when a man and a woman love each other very much – or some crazy potion geezer shoves bottled_ lust _down their throat-"

"Not how the **baby** happened! How did Alice get that stuff down your throat?" Haru asked "I fell for a stupid lie. What did he do to get you to take the stuff?"

"He got up behind me and injected this stuff that made my body go limp for a few minutes." Lucia said "I figured someone as old and bony as him couldn't possibly be a real threat, and a sorcerer wouldn't get so close, so I hadn't bothered to stop him from getting near me." He grimaced "Big mistake."

Haru laughed at this "It's alright. I didn't take Alice seriously the first time I met him either, and I ended up in Plue's body."

"Alright…" Lucia grabbed an errant sheet and hung it over the mirror "From now on I'll call you that."

"I don't mind that at all-**Lulu**" Haru said, pulling a shirt over his head "What's up with the sheet over the mirror anyway?"

"It's just a stupid myth" Lucia began, which was the plain as day way for a person to try and cover up that they're embarrassed to believe it "but mirrors are supposed to confuse the souls of the deceased-preventing them from properly reaching the afterlife. A lot of people die here-usually from injuries inflicted by the resistance that they don't fully recover from."

"And sometimes from injuries inflicted by you?" Haru asked accusingly.

Lucia just grinned at him and picked pulled a shirt over his head as well. Unlike Haru, this shirt didn't make it all the way over his body. This was not pleasing, as it was already noticeably larger than what he would have been wearing were he not with child.

"Need knew clothes?"

"I am _not_ getting anything larger" Lucia said hotly.

"Well, if we were to buy you maternity clothes in that size you could probably-"

XXXXX

"I thought Lucia stopped beating you up"

"I gave him some good motivation" Haru said as Belnika snapped the bone in his arm back into place.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: I'm kind of just writing fillers right now. I don't really know what else to put in right now. Any suggestions?

Btw, have you seen the Fairy Tail anime? IT ROCKS!


	12. Chapter 11

**Daleeria**-I thought so too. Why the name change?

**Chapter 11**

Lucia was playing video games. The idea itself was so utterly absurd that when Haru and his friends had first come into the lounge and found Lucia with a controller in hand staring at the screen they'd all either rubbed their eyes to make sure they were seeing right or pinched themselves to make sure they were awake.

Lucia noticed the reaction and excused his behavior with a simple "I got bored."

It wasn't too hard to understand once the others thought about it a little. Lucia either wasn't capable of or wasn't permitted to do the things he usually did to keep himself entertained, and as of late he'd even been cut out of leadership roles when Juria had decided that the stress that came with a position like Lucia's could harm the baby.

What this signified to Lucia was that he was now a powerless figurehead. What it meant to the others was that they got to hear Sieg, who had said that Juria caring about the baby's health was a load of bull shit, swear.

(RC: I'm not in a super serious mood today)

So on this monumental day Sieg read a nigh incomprehensible physics book, Haru played a board game with Elie, Lucia played a video game, Belnika watched Lucia, and Musica was forgotten about completely.

Elie was beating Haru, unsurprisingly. Her luck covered more than just gambling. If Haru didn't know her any better he'd suspect that she'd discovered a secret to always rolling the dice on the number she needed.

Bored with his loosing streak, Haru glanced over at the TV screen. Lucia was playing a dating sim. At first he'd wanted a sword fighting game, but it had made him sentimental. A computer program was capable of what he no longer was.

"The girl likes you less now" Haru told him when the affection points on the screen dropped.

"I know. I'm trying to make everyone hate me as much as possible." Lucia told him. This was his saving grace for playing a dating sim.

"Is everyone in real life not enough for you?" Musica asked. Bel slapped him.

Sieg glanced up from this, then returned to his book. Belnika's increasing affection and defensives towards Lucia, in spite of what Haru believed, had not gone unnoticed to him. Not knowing her very well, in spite of the time spent near her, made him doubt that he'd be able to convince her that this was dangerous, but he was concerned none the less. Not only for her safety. If she switched sides they'd have lost a healer and would be faced with an opponent who could nullify magic.

As a sorcerer, this was not a pleasing thought.

In addition to that, he couldn't see anyone be willing to harm her, though this would probably fire back the other way as well.

"No. My detest from the human race is so great that I feel the need to torture bits of data in a virtual world as well." Lucia rolled his eyes. Inside him, the baby tried it's best to roll around. Space was becoming scarce.

"Well, I guess Haru's raising the kid then" Musica claimed.

Lucia frown at this thought. Haru was already the one who got to have a loving sibling, friends, and a mostly normal childhood. Why should he get to be the one who got their child too? He said nothing about this, however.

"Drop it" Haru told Musica. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy seeing Lucia get teased, but his broken arm from a few days earlier had convinced him that he was still at risk of being the punching bag.

Oh, and he'd had to have Bel fix his knee after failing to suppress a burst of laughter when Lucia had actually been forced to switch to maternity clothes.

"I don't see why you-"

"Hold that thought" Haru interrupted the blond, getting up to make sure he'd seen right. Deep Snow had walked by the room. He'd been meaning to ask the general more about King. The original plan had been to ask Shuda, but Shuda had vanished inexplicably a little while back "Elie, I'll be back later, alright?"

"Okay" Elie beamed up at him cheerfully as he left.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: I'm planning 2 more chapters. There might be 3 though, because since both Haru and Lucia have 1.5 votes for who keeps the baby I'm figuring I'll just write both endings. Be warned, they start exactly the same.


	13. Chapter 12

**Daleeria**-I dare not show them (since they suck) but I've got a million and one doodles of Lucia upsidedown on a couch playing Super Smash Bros. I can just totally picture it. I try to avoid using names of actual stuff in fanfics though.

**Puppylove7**-haha. I almost posted this before you reviewed. You were this close to not getting a reply. Not that this is much of one.

**Chapter 12**

Dinner was peaceful. This was unusual. For the vast majority of his pregnancy, up the arrival of Deep Snow, Lucia had made every meal a pain for everyone he could by playing up the awkwardness Haru's group was faced with in his presence. He would often question silences from earlier that day or week where he was well aware of the fact that they'd been talking about him. Trying to tease a confession out of the forces of justice so he'd have an excuse to flip the table over. After Deep Snow's arrival dinner was one such silence.

Meals had become predictable. Lucia would sit at one end of the table chewing slowly and glaring at the general. Deep Snow usually ignored the death looks, but occasionally sent a few Haru's way. He'd only returned Lucia's glare once, and had not repeated the mistake. Eating had become so awkward that going to the kitchen when hungry to swipe food had stopped being optional and was practically expected. Of course, a formal dinner was mandatory.

Tonight was one of those rare nights where Deep Snow had come up with a decent excuse to not show up for dinner. If one of them skipped it was usually Lucia, who used excuses more along the lines of severe discomforts from his pregnancy while Deep Snow used work as an excuse. At the end of his pregnancy though, people had an easier time believing whatever story Lucia came up with.

Lucia sat at the front of the table happily stuffing his face with pork. From the time he'd first been impregnated to nearly forty weeks along he'd gone from almost having to be forced to eat more than a few bites at each meal to being a bug eater. Nothing comically big, but definitely more than anyone else would eat.

Next to Haru was Lucia, who wasn't nearly as hungry. His anticipation for the baby had consumed his mind the past few days. He would spend some time in quiet contemplation of parental maters while picking at his food, occasionally glancing at Lucia's large stomach.

Elie started the spark. "Bel-I saw you and Lucia _kissing_." Lucia stopped eating for a moment to stare at her in horror. Belnika looked equally embarrassed. "Was that your _first_ kiss?" It was asked more in a girl-talk fashion than in any cruel mocking way.

"Y-yes…" Belnika stuttered. She'd been so sure they were alone at the time. She couldn't believe that someone had seen her, let alone that they made the news public. Her increasingly open attraction to the blond had received a very negative reception from friends and enemies alike. She didn't like having attention drawn to it.

"That's the second time you've taken someone's first kiss, isn't it Lulu?" Haru asked somewhat harshly. He'd missed the point of Elie's question-that Belnika was getting into her first relationship.

"What are you talking about?" Lucia sounded genuinely confused.

"You stole Elie's first kiss!" Haru accused "You don't even remember?"

"Honestly? No."

Haru growled "She was **crying**!"

Belnika tried to say something to direct the conversation away, but Musica egged it on before she could "You laughed"

"Well sor-ry" Lucia said sarcastically "If memory serves I also stabbed Shuda. It seems more like you'd be upset about that." He paused and looked around "Where** is** Shuda?"

"I can't believe how heartless you are!" Haru erupted. Shockingly, this still beat sitting at a table with Lucia and Deep Snow "It's no wonder no one likes you!"

Bel and Elie both stared urging Haru to sit down. Though he'd ignored that particular comment up until then Lucia wasn't going to let it stand this time. "Says the boy whose dad ditched him for ten years"

"Big words from someone whose father got a replacement son and left the original to rot in prison." Haru snapped back.

This one Lucia had no comeback for. He stared at Haru in shock. The ate-my-puppy-alive look from when he was sick returned to his face. For a moment both of them just stood there, then Lucia wordlessly sat back down. Haru followed.

Dinner became uncomfortably silent. Worse than when Deep Snow sat next to Lucia. Finally, in a last ditch effort to break the horrible, nerve wracking silence, Beryl said "Shakuma finally completed his mission. The one that took the whole damn pregnancy. I think this calls for a celebration." That no one would care in any normal situation wasn't mentioned "Hey, servant, fetch some wine."

A moment of silence.

All the servant had fled during the argument.

"…I can get some" an advisor offered.

"I'll get it." Lucia muttered, getting up and leaving before anyone could stop him.

The second he was gone Belnika turned and glared daggers at Haru "I can't believe you said that!"

"He said-"

"That's irrelevant." Sieg cut Haru off "Lucia is different from you, Haru, you ought to be able to ignore insults from him. To sink to his level his worse than to start out at it. To sink below him… well… I might have expected that from several people in our group when provoked, but certainly not you."

Haru looked at Sieg with his mouth agape.

"And what about the baby?" Elie added "Lucia was kind of mean near the end-and he's a jerk for kissing me like that-but he's pregnant."

Haru stared down at his lap. He had been aware of the fact that he was being harsh, but he hadn't expected Lucia to take it **that** badly. And he couldn't believe his friends were chewing him out for it. Sure, it was bad, but it was still Lucia.

After a few more shame-on-ye speeches the general conversation returned to normal. After some time Belnika began to look uncomfortable, and a after a little longer she turned to Sieg and said "How long has Lucia been gone?"

Sieg thought about it for a second "An hour and fourteen minutes" He'd stopped giving seconds as well after Shuda had pointed out how ridiculous that was.

"I wouldn't be too surprised if he got lost. He never bothered to learn the layout past this floor. The wine cellar is in the basement." Which was said as if this wasn't the expected.

"Or he could have just gone to his room" Megido added.

"I'll go look" Haru offered. Like Lucia, he left to quickly for anyone to object.

To Haru's dismay and relief, Lucia had not gone to sulk in his room. That meant he was at least not so upset that he couldn't function. He went to check the route to the wine cellar next, figuring he could use Silfarion to a quick search of the whole castle if he didn't find the blond this way.

The door to the wine cellar wasn't locked, but it was creaky as hell. Haru stepped in and let the door shut behind him, to relieved to spot Lucia sitting on a crate to care. Lucia looked up at him, a little surprised to see that someone had come, then said "That was stupid of you."

There were a few stairs to go down before reaching the actual floor to the cellar. Haru quickly stepped down them and walked over to the blond "What? The thing I said earlier? Look, I-"

"Letting the door shut. It's broken. I can't get it to open from this side."

Haru let this sink in, then shook his head and ran back over to the door. A few seconds of trying proved this statement right. He pulled his sword out and struck the wood, only to be thrown back.

"The bottom floor **a**nd basement **l**eve**l**s are reinforced wit**h** m**a**g**i**c so no one can destroy the cast**l**e by wrecking the foundations." Lucia told hi**m** "We'r**e** stuck down here until someone with enough brains not to let the door close comes looking for us**.**"

"You could have warned me when I came in!"

"I didn't notice until the door shut"

"That hinge is the creakiest thing I've ever heard."

"Just sit here in silence for a few minutes. You'll hear enough creaking to make the door sound like a whisper."

"How can you be so calm? We're trapped in a wine cellar! Everyone thinks you just got lost in the castle somewhere and that I'm wandering around looking for you. It could be a whole day before someone comes down here! A **whole day**! It can't get any worse than this!"

"You forgot something" Lucia told him.

"Oh! Did I?! Well what was that?!" Haru's voice was several octaves higher than normal.

"I'm in labor."

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Okay, I lied. _Now_ there should be 2 more chapter (counting the separate endings as one)

Btw, what did you think of that "Zero" thing? Cool idea to make Brain seem less lame. Way lamer name than Brain. Couldn't they just call him Brawn of something? Seriously, that would have been better.


	14. Chapter 13

**Daleeria** – calm down…

No one called me out on the 'all hail me' thing

**Chapter 13**

Haru circled the room reading the labels on the wine bottles. He'd already made one trip around reading just the brands. This time he was going through the whole thing. He'd decided that if he made it all the way through before they were found he could go mad.

On occasion he'd glance over at Lucia. He had to hand it to the blond, he was handling labor better than expected. Haru had imagined that when it was time for the baby to be born Lucia would be screaming in pain and begging for it to end somehow. Lucia had not moved from the crate at all. He'd occasionally grimace, but gave no other indication that he might be even the slightest bit uncomfortable.

After Haru made it a quarter of the way around the room he lost interest and walked over to Lucia "How are you holding out?"

"Just fine…"

"If I can do anything to make you more comfortable…"

"You could try to find a way out of here." Lucia told him.

"Didn't you try at all before I came?"

"That's what set off the contractions" Lucia told him.

Haru bit his lip. Lucia never would have bothered to come down for wine in the first place if it wasn't for his comment earlier. This whole mess was his fault.

"Look… I'm sorry."

"For letting the door shut?"

"For what I said at the table" Haru clarified "I lied. Your dad didn't leave you for dead. He thought you were dead already-that you'd been shot down in that incident at Demon Card back when our dads were still friends. Deep Snow and Shuda both said the only reason he adopted Deep Snow was because he looked like you as a little kid. And the whole time our dads were fighting right before they died, yours kept screaming how it was all my dad's fault that you and your mom died. If he'd known he would have gone back for you."

Lucia looked away, but Haru could still see a light smile on his face and a tear roll down his cheek. Labor or not, he'd made the boy's week at the very least.

After a moment of silence Haru went back to reading wine labels. With all the creaking of the floor and ceiling above, he barely heard Lucia muter a small "thanks". Haru turned and smiled at him before pulling the next bottle of the wrack and inspecting its label.

Neither spoke to each other again for over an hour. It was only when a contraction drew a whimper from Lucia that Haru felt the need to speak "I wish someone would come already. It didn't take this long after you left before I went looking for you."

"It's probably hard to believe we'd both just be sitting in a wine cellar. You said they thought I got lost, right? They might think we're both wandering around."

"Yeah-but you'd think that by now they'd be worried sick. I hope they've got a lot of people looking."

Lucia took a deep breath and placed a hand on his stomach.

"You still holding up?"

"I'll manage." The blond grunted

"You look like you're starting to like it a lot less" Haru noted

Lucia scowled and confessed "The contractions are getting worse."

"Here. Let me see. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I had to watch enough birth videos to get the basic idea." Haru said.

"No." Lucia said, then gasped and clutched his stomach.

"Come on Lucia. We're in a wine cellar. Nothing else can possibly make the birth worse"

Lucia frown, then got down on the floor and removed his pants "This feels wrong" was all he had to say as he lay down and let Haru inspect.

"Very wrong" Haru agreed, chewing his lip.

"Hey, how'd the baby getting out of me anyway?"

"You don't want to know" Haru assured him "And my knowledge of childbirth says it won't come out for a while longer. You can sit back up if you want."

Lucia held a hand out "Help." So Haru had to pull him back into a sitting position.

"Still holding out?"

"This isn't as bad as after Star Vestige." Lucia told him. Whether this was a statement about how trivial the contractions were or how badly the beating back then had been was not clarified, but Haru assumed it was the later.

"I'm sure someone will come soon…" Haru said doubtfully.

"I'm sure it'll be a winged pig that leaves a rainbow trail behind. Face it Haru-no one is going to come for a good long while. The baby is going to be born in a wine cellar."

Because the universe enjoyed so much to prove Lucia wrong, mess with his head, and screw him over whenever the opportunity arose, the door to the cellar opened just then. Deep Snow stepped in and looked around.

"Don't shut the door!" Haru cried up to him.

Deep Snow grabbed the door and held it steady "What are you two doing? I came down here when I heard you two had gone missing after Lucia went to fetch some wine."

"The door's broken" Haru told him "Lucia's in labor. Help!"

Deep Snow stuck a wedge in the door and came down the stairs "I can get him to the hospital wing. If he's not up for the walk, I'm capable of carrying him."

"I'd rather be pecked to death by humming birds" Lucia informed him.

"I think carrying him would be a good idea." Haru said.

"I can walk!" Lucia insisted. Deep Snow picked him up anyway and carried the blond kicking and screaming all the way to the hospital wing.

The doctor there accepted Lucia and shoved both Haru and Deep Snow out, saying it would be a little while still before the baby was actually born.

With nothing better to do, Haru pulled out Silfarion and started running around the castle, stopping to let any of his friends who he came across know what had happened. For the most part all this sparked was a statement along the lines of "good luck" or something about how they'd see the baby in the morning, as it was almost midnight now. The only two people who got any different reaction were Belnika, who'd rushed to the hospital wing, and Sieg, who'd decided to go as well, but had talked to Haru a little first and had been in nowhere near as big a hurry to reach his destination.

When Haru returned Belnika had forced her way into the room, but the doctor still wasn't admitting anyone else in to see Lucia. Even the excuse of being the father did not get Haru through.

"Don't worry" Deep Snow said passively "Lucia's tough. He'll be fine."

"I'm more worried about if the baby will come out alright…"

"How is the baby coming out anyway?" Sieg had to ask "It doesn't sound like they're removing it surgically."

"Don't ask…"

"But if-"

"Don't ask." Haru repeated more firmly. Sieg didn't press further.

On the other side of the door Lucia screamed. If you listened hard enough you could hear Bel telling him soothing things, trying to draw his attention away from the pain. Haru bit his lip and sat down next to Deep Snow. He'd just have to wait now.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Don't look so upset. Of _course_ I wouldn't have the baby born in a wine cellar.

Okay. Onto the final chapter(s).


	15. Final chapter: Haru

**Final Chapter – Haru keeps the kid**

It wasn't until late in the morning that Haru was allowed to go in to see the baby.

Lucia was still in bed. He gave no sign that he intended to get out of it any time soon. He held on tightly to a small blue bundle.

"Is that the kid?" Haru asked. He felt himself excited. A boy!

Lucia nodded mutely and held the baby out just the slightest bit so Haru could see his face. The little boy was asleep, but he already looked like he'd take more after Haru. He had the same platinum hair as his father.

"He's cute."

Lucia gave a slight nod in agreement.

"May I hold him."

Lucia shook his head.

"Lucia, let me hold him." Haru insisted "How am I supposed to raise the kid if you won't even hand him over?"

"You're not supposed to." Lucia replied "What made you think I was going to give him up?"

"Maybe the constant complaining about how you hated being pregnant-or the fact that you're a psycho." Haru said "Lucia, give me the baby."

"Haru, please, calm down." Belnika said "This is just going to end in another fight like last night."

"Yeah-that was all my fault" Haru said dryly "Bel, you can't be siding with him on **this** one. You know what he's like. He can't be trusted with a child!"

"I know what he's like better than you." Belnika said tartly "And that he wants to keep the baby ought to be evidence enough that he cares for the child. Uta already spent most of the morning trying to convince him to give it up."

"Well he should listen to Uta."

"Haru." Haru spun around. Sieg was standing behind him "Come with me for a minute."

Hessitantly, Haru followed Sieg into the hallway. No one else was there. Deep Snow had left after hearing Lucia had successfully given birth, and none of the others had bothered to show since they still weren't able to see the baby.

"What is this about. You can't intend to side with him too. Sieg, you-"

"Haru, I want you to consider the following before making a decision. This child is you first-I know that's special-but regardless of if you keep the baby or not you and Elie are going to have at least one more kid. Stop blushing, everyone knows that will happen. Belnika is the only person Lucia's gotten close to in any normal way in the past decade. **If** they were to get married like you and Elie undoubtedly will, Bel is still unable to have children. This is likely Lucia's only chance at having a family-he missed getting to be the child in one.

"Now I can probably convince him to give up the baby. But think about that. Do you want me too?"

Haru sat down and weighed out the options. He didn't hate Lucia **as much** as he had since coming here, though he still had no love for the blond. It did seem a little cruel to deny someone a family two times around, but he didn't want to give up having a child himself…

"I want to keep the baby"

Sieg nodded and led Haru back into the room.

"Lucia, let Haru keep the child."

"Do you think I'm more likely to listen if it comes from you?"

"No." Sieg admitted "But I do think you're more likely to listen if you hear this. You're the closest thing I've ever heard of to a walking bad luck charm. It's as if the universe tries to separate you from everything you come to care for. Your mother was killed and you were taken away from your father when you were little, and that's just the start of all the bad luck that follows you around. The child will be safer with Haru. Not because you might harm it, but because someone else will to try and harm you. If you give Haru the baby you probably won't see it again, but keeping him will make it so you'll probably lose him. If I had a child, I'd rather he be safe somewhere else than dead."

Lucia gave Sieg that ate-my-puppy-alive look that seemed to be growing on him, then looked down at the child, clearly torn. After a long while nothing was said. Then, with a slight whimper, Lucia handed the baby over to Haru.

Haru muttered a soft thanks and left the room. No one moved to stop him from leaving with the baby.

XXXXX

"So… what's his name?" Elie asked.

They were aboard Musica's ship. The Demon Card doctor had insisted that they spend a few more nights in the castle to make sure the baby was healthy before they could leave. Haru had agreed, since Bel gave no sign of wanting to come with him.

"I was thinking Takeshi" Haru said.

Takeshi giggled and half-reached out for Elie's hair, then blew a raspberry.

"He's cute. I love his eyes." Elie said.

"Heterochromia" Sieg spoke up from the other side of the room. He was ignored.

"Yeah. They're really cool." Haru held a hand up to Takeshi. The little baby blinked. One of his eyes was the same as Haru's. The other was a shade of gold like Lucia's. When they spoke with Shuda about it over the phone he said it was likely the baby's way of compensating for two mixed bloodlines with dominate genetic appearances. When they asked Sieg he'd dismissed the reason as insignificant-since genetics weren't his forte.

"He can't travel with us." Haru added somberly "I sent a letter to Catt explaining some of what happened. She helped mom raise me, so she can take care of him until the war is over. Garage Island is rarely affected by the outside world, so I can't think of a safer place for him to stay."

"You made such a huge fuss over him and you're shipping him off?" Musica asked.

"Well, I wanted to keep him with me, but that stuff Sieg said to Lucia about the baby being used to hurt him got me worried. We just have one more Rave Stone, and Sieg has the last Sinclair hidden somewhere. It shouldn't be to long before the fight is over. I'll get to see him again soon. I'd rather he be safe and somewhere else than with me and dead."

"I guess that makes sense…" Musica frown "When are we going back?"

"I already gave Hebi the directions"

"Haru-you need to get my permission to boss my men around."

"You'd say yes anyway." Haru dismissed the issue and bounced Takeshi on his lap. "Hey little guy, you're gonna stay with your aunt, okay? Don't worry though. I'll get to be with you all the time, real soon."

"You won't get to sleep real soon either." Sieg said, getting the final words.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Of COURSE Sieg would get the final words. Onto ending number 2.


	16. Final chapter: Lucia

**Final Chapter – Haru keeps the kid**

It wasn't until late in the morning that Haru was allowed to go in to see the baby.

Lucia was still in bed. He gave no sign that he intended to get out of it any time soon. He held on tightly to a small blue bundle.

"Is that the kid?" Haru asked. He felt himself excited. A boy!

Lucia nodded mutely and held the baby out just the slightest bit so Haru could see his face. The little boy was asleep, but he already looked like he'd take more after Lucia. He had the same blond hair as his mother.

"He's cute."

Lucia gave a slight nod in agreement.

"May I hold him."

Lucia shook his head.

"Lucia, let me hold him." Haru insisted "How am I supposed to raise the kid if you won't even hand him over?"

"You're not supposed to." Lucia replied "What made you think I was going to give him up?"

"Maybe the constant complaining about how you hated being pregnant-or the fact that you're a psycho." Haru said "Lucia, give me the baby."

"Haru, please, calm down." Belnika said "This is just going to end in another fight like last night."

"Yeah-that was all my fault" Haru said dryly "Bel, you can't be siding with him on **this** one. You know what he's like. He can't be trusted with a child!"

"I know what he's like better than you." Belnika said tartly "And that he wants to keep the baby ought to be evidence enough that he cares for the child. Uta already spent most of the morning trying to convince him to give it up."

"Well he should listen to Uta."

"Haru." Haru spun around. Sieg was standing behind him "Come with me for a minute."

Hessitantly, Haru followed Sieg into the hallway. No one else was there. Deep Snow had left after hearing Lucia had successfully given birth, and none of the others had bothered to show since they still weren't able to see the baby.

"What is this about. You can't intend to side with him too. Sieg, you-"

"Haru, I want you to consider the following before making a decision. This child is you first-I know that's special-but regardless of if you keep the baby or not you and Elie are going to have at least one more kid. Stop blushing, everyone knows that will happen. Belnika is the only person Lucia's gotten close to in any normal way in the past decade. **If** they were to get married like you and Elie undoubtedly will, Bel is still unable to have children. This is likely Lucia's only chance at having a family-he missed getting to be the child in one.

"Now I can probably convince him to give up the baby. But think about that. Do you want me too?"

Haru sat down and weighed out the options. He didn't hate Lucia **as much** as he had since coming here, though he still had no love for the blond. It did seem a little cruel to deny someone a family two times around, but he didn't want to give up having a child himself…

"I… I guess it wouldn't be fair to deny Lucia a family…" Haru admitted grudgingly. "If… if you could get him to let me visit from time to time…"

Sieg nodded and led Haru back into the room.

"Well?"

"If you want to keep the baby, that's fine." Sieg said. Lucia's eyes lit up "But" they darkened a little "Haru ought to be able to see the child when he wants to."

"Why?" Lucia asked. His voice had never been less trusting.

"Because he's the father-and the baby ought to know both its real parents. I'm sure you would have greatly appreciated a visit from your father while you were in Mega Unit."

"That's low." Lucia frown, holding the baby a little tighter. Belnika put a hand on his shoulder, and he sighed "Fine. Fine. If Haru wants to, he can. But he'd better give forewarning of I'll have him shot down at the gates."

"I feel special" Haru rolled his eyes.

"It's better than nothing." Sieg reminded him.

"Now can I hold the baby."

With incredible hesitation, Lucia handed the child over.

"What are we naming him?" Haru wondered around. Several names played through his head.

"Leo" Lucia told him. The simple statement had been made so firmly that Haru feared arguing it in the slightest way would have his visitation rights revoked.

"Alright. Leo it is." Haru conceded.

Lucia held his hands out to take Leo back. Haru handed him over with the same hesitation Lucia had previously shown.

"We should go." Sieg advised "The truce is technically over. You can come back and see Leo when you want to-but we're in danger here, and we **are** still at war."

"R-right." Haru paused "Can't we just wait until he wakes up?"

As if on cue, Leo opened his eyes right then and let out a big yawn before starting to cry. Lucia looked a little flustered by this.

"Milk" Belnika told him.

"R-right." Lucia looked around. Most of the baby care items had been supplied in the room for whenever Leo woke up. A bottle of relatively warm baby formula was on a shelf just barely within reach of the bed. With a bit of instruction, Lucia stuck it in Leo's mouth.

"I'm still not sure I trust you with the kid." Haru admitted. He couldn't take his eyes of Leo's eyes. He'd never seen anything so striking before. The right eye was the same gold as Lucia's, but his left eye was the same as his father's.

"I can handle it." Lucia said "I can run an organization like this. How much harder could raising a child be?"

"You'd be surprised" Sieg told him.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: yesh. Sieg gets the last word. Cuzz Sieg ROCKS. And the _totally_ shouldn't have killed him. Go Sieg!

Oh yeah, and congrats to Haru and Lucia on having their first kid.


End file.
